Traditionally, football teams have hoped to dodge the "group of death" in a tournament – the one with the strongest opponents. But the Euro 2012 finals have also raised the spectre of a "group of debt", made up of ailing eurozone members Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Ireland.

The five countries are spread across the four groups of seeds. They will have to wait until the draw for the finals in Kiev on 2 December to see whether they are lumped together.

Reigning world and European champions Spain, with debts of £465bn, are in the top group of seeds, along with Holland, Poland and Ukraine, who have already been allocated to groups A and D respectively.

Italy, with debts of £2.2tn, are in the second group of seeds, along with England, Germany and Russia.

Greece, with debts of £290bn, are in the third group, with Portugal, Croatia and Sweden.

The Republic of Ireland, with debts of £80bn, are in the fourth group of seeds alongside Denmark, the Czech Republic and France.

Italy, Greece and Spain are all previous winners of the tournament, although the cash rewards handed out by UEFA, Europe's football governing body, are unlikely to help the countries involved ease their debt woes.

The Greek captain, Theodoros Zagorakis, lifted the trophy in 2004, the same year Greece hosted the Olympics at a reported cost of £7bn.